By Ian Eames-
steel spikes are installed to drive away the homeless.
We live in an age of ignorance, where sections of society are misled into believing that a person’s worth has to amount to numerical value. In this sense, an individual’s worth equates their financial status. In reality, an individual’s worth is the content of their character, and their potential if given the opportunity.
Broke individuals invariably lose the comforts that would otherwise make them functioning members of society. Things such as food, shelter and the basic things we take for granted (not, as infuriatingly obvious as this is, how many Pokémons adults can collect on the streets through their phones or how many people like the latest selfie or dinner you had).
This level of unashamed, unabashed ignorance has contributed to the development of placing spikes in place of rough sleepers. Homeless people need help not condescending attitudes. Forcing them out of the way by force because they make your place of work or your residence ‘unsightly’ doesn’t appear to be the appropriate action . It amounts to passive violence against the under trodden.
At the same time, it is hardly a good sight to find a homeless person sleeping in front of your building. More helpful would be a chat with them to see how they can be helped to improve their situation. Those who don’t want to be helped should not litter our streets with their presence. However, those in a genuine situation of misery need some help. I have met homeless people who cannot even get a council place because they have no passport, and can’t afford one.
I am talking of British born individuals who have no passport! Sounds disgraceful.
Anybody capable of a conscience and a consciousness can see how actions such as this are corrupting society rather than improving it but still it persists.
The photo above was taken outside a residence in South London, where the properties above have a market value of over £500,000. Residents of these flats complained they simply don’t want homeless people outside. Others have condemned the words and actions of these people as amounting to treating the people outside as ‘vermin’.
Other bodies including local authorities and businesses argued that this practice had been occurring for some time but was becoming more widespread, while making excuses for the purpose of their installation and delegating responsibility.
Homeless charities and their affiliates meanwhile are facing their own crises with increased budget cuts and restrictions placed on who is deserving of support owing to certain criteria, often the very same as that which has contributed to an individual’s rough sleeping to begin with.